Category Archives: Linux

Step 1. Backup

Backup all the important files/configs/ etc. The upgrades usually go smooth but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have backup ready, in case anything goes wrong.

Step 2. Disable proprietary drivers

Remove proprietary binary drivers for graphic cards (Nvidia/AMD) etc as the linux kernel version will change in 14.04, the older graphic drivers may not work. So, it’s better to uninstall them before upgrade and reinstall after upgrade. And reboot the system.

Step 3. Start Update manager

From Ubuntu 13.10, it should be available in update manager. Just type

sudo update-manager

and follow the upgrade instructions.

From Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, you need to provide -d option for force upgrade (until, it’s officially available in next few months (until 14.04.1), by July/Aug 2014) :

sudo update-manager -d

And you should see 14.04 available in update manager.

Click on “upgrade” and follow the instruction. And of course, you should reinstall any proprietary drivers if removed earlier.

Note : If you don’t see the message “New Ubuntu Release ‘14.04’ is available”, then you may need to check settings and enable the option that says : notify me about new ubuntu version for long term support version.

Ubuntu 14.04 (code named as Trusty Tahr) is released. It’s a LTS release, so, it will be supported for next 5 years (the earlier LTS edition (12.04) was released two years ago). If you move from LTS to LTS (as I do, for primary development environment), then it’s time to upgrade.

What’s new in Ubuntu 14.04 “Trusty Tahr” ?

In the latest Ubuntu 14.04 Desktop edition, the default desktop environment Unity has improved a lot. Now, you can easily change menu bar settings to windows title bar instead of top menu bar, It also supports high DPI screens and text scaling as well, Improved screensaver and locked screen etc.

So, before switching to alternate desktop environment like Mate/Cinnamon or GNOME, you should give it another try. You may like it. Although, new version of GNOME (3.12) will also be available soon.

Here are some other changes/improvements in this new release.

Ships with Python 3 by default, although you can easily install python 2 from the package

uGet is a free and open source software for managing file downloads (over HTTP/S, FTP etc). It’s the most popular download manager program for GNU/Linux distributions such as Debian, Ubuntu, ArchLinux, Gentoo etc. It’s also available for Windows. uGet is lightweight but still a very powerful download manager.

Mozilla Firefox v 22 is out! Checkout the release notes for more info. It has come with lots of new features/improvements such as support for new HTML5 elements, improved WebGL performance, new APIs for web notifications, security fixes and more!

What’s new in Firefox 22 ?

WebRTC enabled by default

you can control HTML5 audio or video playback rate

asm.js is optimized for better performance

built in font inspector

CSS3Flexbox enabled by default

new HTML5 elements (date and time)

Ubuntu/Linux Mint users can update the firefox through the regular update, using Update Manager or terminal –

Ajenti is a server admin panel program for web administrators. It’s available for Debian (or its derivatives such as Ubuntu), Arch, CentOS, FreeBSD, Gentoo etc. Most of the server administrators prefer command line, that’s usually fast and efficient for setup and deployment, but for monitoring servers, it would be lot easier to use an admin panel like Ajenti, especially if you’re not very good at commands.

Ajenti provides a very nice and easy to use Dashboard for monitoring and controlling servers, you can check resource usages (RAM, CPU graphs and reports), configure firewall, DNS, check logs, install/update packages, analyse network status, create/remove cron jobs, recovery/backup settings and a lot more things (just install the plugins you want to use). It basically provides an elegant GUI for managing servers, in a very easy way. You would probably feel like – using a desktop environment, specifically designed for server administration.